Articulations

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Dietz Full-Time With SVT

Well, if this year doesn't see the flurry of personnel changes at Austin arts organizations that last year did, it won't be for lack of trying. We're not even out of the first month, and another theatre company is announcing a big shift in organizational makeup. This time, it's rebel troupe Salvage Vanguard Theater, and it's adding a staffer to share the responsibilities of running the company. As of January 3, Dan Dietz has signed on full time with Salvage as co-artistic director. That means that for the first time, the six-year-old theatre company will have someone other than founding artistic director Jason Neulander running the show. According to Neulander's press statement, the move reflects "some major artistic and organizational shifts over the past year-and-a-half. It became increasingly clear that I simply could not do all of the administrative work on my own." Dietz was a natural choice to step in, according to Neulander. He had history with the company, working on nine of its projects since 1997; he had a range of experience in artistic and administrative positions, having worked as director, actor, dramaturg, playwright, and producer; and he had artistic values in sync with Neulander's. Dietz says, "Jason and I have always approached our work in ways that complement one another nicely, and our aesthetic values line up really well. Becoming equal partners was the perfect next step." For more info, call 474-SVT6.

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Endowed Chair at UT Art

Call it a belated Christmas present for the UT Department of Art & Art History: a new endowed chair. The Kimbell Art Foundation of Fort Worth is responsible; it contributed $1 million toward the establishment of the Kay Fortson Endowed Chair in European Art, to further the study of European culture and art between 313 and 1900. Named for a 1956 UT graduate with a strong interest in art (she's the sole direct descendant of the founders of the Kimbell Art Museum), the Kay Fortson Chair will provide salary and research support to the faculty member who holds it, aid to graduate students through assistantships, fellowships, and travel support, and will lay the groundwork for a Center for the Study of European Art at UT. What with the school's acquisiition of all that lovely Renaissance and Baroque art from the Suida-Manning Collection, such a center seems to make a lot of sense. And makes the Fortson Chair much more significant than your usual faculty endowment.

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Standing Room Only

There wasn't a chair to spare at Gaby and Mo's this past Sunday, January 16, when the Rude Mechanicals took over the Manor Road coffeehouse/eatery. The company's brunch with Terry Galloway had packed the place with fans and many dear friends of the writer-performer. After many hugs, Galloway took the stage to read from her upcoming memoir and her play In the House of the Moles, which the Rude Mechs are producing in February. Both pieces were vintage Galloway: literate, fierce, linguistically rich, honest, and savagely funny. Take care: Tickets for Moles and Galloway's Out All Night and Lost My Shoes won't last long. Reserve seats now: 476-RUDE. ... My first trip to FronteraFest 2000 confirmed that the fest is doing big business. Last Saturday's "Best of the Week" was a sell-out, and Frontera artistic director Vicky Boone said houses had been full all week. Don't miss out: Call 479-PLAY.